1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information retrieval system for obtaining desired information from an information data server connected to a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Presently, information retrieval systems for obtaining desired information by using the Internet or the like have been established.
To obtain information of, for example, a hotel by using the information retrieval system, a typical user operation is as follows. The user first makes an access to a WWW (World Wide Web) server by using a communication terminal apparatus such as a personal computer (hereinafter, abbreviated to xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d) or the like, and then opens a home page of a search engine. Subsequently, the user selects a hotel existing in a desired region from a plurality of selection items shown in the home page or directly designates a hotel by entering a character string by using a keyboard or the like. Then a list of names of the hotels existing in the desired region is displayed in response to the designation of the hotel, and the user can finally obtain information regarding the desired hotel by further selecting a desired hotel name from the displayed list.
In the conventional information retrieval system, as mentioned above, a number of designation operations are required until the desired information is obtained. This causes a problem of poor operability, particularly when a retrieval system having a limited function such as a vehicle-mounted system is used.
The invention has been derived to solve the above problem and it is an object of the invention to provide an information retrieval system by which desired information can be retrieved with an easy operation.
According to the invention, there is provided an information retrieval system which comprises an information network, a plurality of information servers connected to the information network, and an information retrieval terminal connected to the information network, wherein the information retrieval system further comprises a search assisting server connected to the information network, in which list data constituted by a list of identifiers to make access to information pages stored in each of the information server is stored, the identifier corresponding to a desired item is searched for from the list data stored in the search assisting server in response to the designation of the desired item by the information retrieval terminal, and an access to the information network is made by the retrieved identifier, thereby obtaining the information page corresponding to the desired item.